Is There Somewhere
by bravevulnerability
Summary: "You may not care, but I'm not losing you again," he states under his breath, his eyes a thunderous shade of blue burning bright in the darkness of night all around them. "Definitely not like this." A Castle Halloween Bash 2016 entry. Set during 4x22, 'Undead Again'.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I realize I already have a couple of zombie apocalypse AUs published, but after seeing this prompt, the idea was such a fun one to explore and the fill just happened. Apologies in advance!**

* * *

 _Prompt from 'castleficpromoter's list of Halloween Bash ideas:_

 _4x22, Undead Again, AU: The killer really was a zombie._

* * *

"So do we have cause of death?" Beckett asks as the body of Kyle Jennings is wheeled into the morgue, ignoring Castle and Perlmutter's sarcastic back and forth jabs at one another, studying the decomposed victim on the slab.

It's all fake, prosthetics and stage makeup, but it unsettles her how real the decaying skin of the man's face looks, the sharp prominence of bone beneath, the warmth his body emits despite being dead for hours now.

She's torn away from her examination when Castle stops Perlmutter from proceeding with the autopsy, a question bubbling on his lips.

"Before this man died, he was behaving exactly like he was a zombie. So, is there any medical way to determine if he actually was… one?"

Beckett rolls her eyes, prepares for Perlmutter's wrath.

"Why is he in my morgue?" the medical examiner demands in exasperation. "There are no zombies, Castle. This is a man. He was a live man, but now he's a dead man. End of story, now-"

Perlmutter is cut off by the sudden jerk of said dead man beneath him, the ripple of awareness as his eyes snap open to reveal a very much _alive_ body on the slab, but despite his revival, Kyle Jennings hardly looks human. His eyes are dark, bloodshot and unseeing, lifeless, but when they land on Perlmutter hunched above him, the ink black pupils dilate.

"Get back," Beckett warns, grabbing Castle by the arm and tugging him away from the body, the hands twitching at its sides. "Perlmutter-"

"Hold on, Detective, let me check his-"

"Beckett," Castle murmurs, drawing her back towards the door with him, his arm extending out in front of her as if he could protect her from the man growling on the table, but she refuses to give him the chance. "I think you should call for backup."

Kate fishes her phone from her pocket, but Kyle is already writhing on the metal table, arms flailing, hands grabbing for Perlmutter, lunging for the M.E with an open mouth.

She replaces the phone with her gun.

"Perlmutter, get back!"

One of the assistants in training rushes in to help, grabbing Kyle by the shoulder and quickly earning the dead man's attention, gaining the sink of his teeth into the young trainee's arm, eliciting screams that echo through the room as Kyle rips the flesh from bone.

Beckett fires a round into Kyle's back, but even as her bullets penetrate the man's upper body, he doesn't stop.

"Charlie," Castle utters. "That - that guy we interviewed yesterday, the one who was bitten, he was right," he gets out, hooking his fingers at her elbow and jerking her back as Kyle tackles Perlmutter to the ground, but she can't get a shot like this with the man on top of him, biting into his throat and muffling the M.E's screams. "He's _actually_ a zombie."

She fires again, empties her clip into Kyle, but he won't stop, doesn't stop until her last bullet pierces his skull.

"No," she whispers, because it's not possible. Zombies? That entire myth was just fodder for TV shows and horror movies. It isn't real, can't be real-

"We have to go, Kate," Castle urges, yanking her back through the swinging door until she finally turns, doesn't withdraw the hand he's claimed in his own, and runs with him towards the exit.

"Castle," she gasps after him, sprinting up the stairs to street level by his side, her eyes scanning the sidewalks filled with people. Normal people, nothing out of the ordinary, making everything she just witnessed down in the morgue feel as if it was nothing more than a horrific hallucination. "Wait, we can't just-"

"Look, I know you don't buy into stuff like this," he throws back over his shoulder, hustling back towards her cruiser. "But I do and even if it's all some mistake and the world is _not_ about to go into zombie apocalypse mode in a matter of hours, just humor me."

But she can't just run away. There were two dead people inside the building at their backs, an unfortunate bystander passed out from shock and blood loss on the morgue's not so pristine floors, and she's a cop, her job is to protect and serve. Not retreat and hide.

" _Rick_ -"

He stops abruptly at the driver's side door, has her bumping into his chest and bracing herself with a hand to his sternum.

"You may not care, but I'm not losing you again," he states under his breath, his eyes a thunderous shade of blue burning bright in the darkness of night all around them. "Definitely not like this. So just - we need to find someplace safe."

She shouldn't indulge him, feed into this delusion of a zombie apocalypse, but she's too hung up on how he doesn't want to lose her even after he'd said this was his last case, even after he'd wanted to leave her.

Kate releases his hand to open the door, nudging him to the passenger side before she slides into the driver's seat and keys the ignition.

* * *

She speeds on their way back to the precinct while Castle calls Alexis, his mother.

"No, Pumpkin, listen," he murmurs, his voice soothing, not panicked like the look on his face, like the quivering of his fingers on his knee. "Remember last year when I told you and Gram to go to the Hamptons? Yeah, when the bomb threat happened," he sighs, scrubbing at his eyes. "It's not that, just - trust me? I'll meet you there this time, I promise."

Beckett chews on her bottom lip, piercing the flesh and tasting the faintest hint of blood on her tongue. His fear was beginning to spread to her, the preposterous idea suddenly starting to feel all too real, but she forces herself to block it out, refuses to buy into it. She would play along for now, for Castle's sake, but after his theory was proven wrong, she'd return to the morgue, give her statement - if she can manage to make sense of what she saw - and make up for her cowardly exit.

"I love you too, see you tomorrow, Pumpkin. And just remember, no stopping." Castle withdraws the phone from his ear and cuts his gaze to her. "We'll do our best to meet them in the Hamptons. After that, I have a bunker further upstate."

"A _bunker_?" she repeats incredulously, but he isn't joking; she actually can't recall the last time she witnessed Castle appear so deadly serious.

"We'll be safe there, it's fully stocked, but we should probably stop at your place first, get what you need-"

"But the case," she protests weakly and it's his turn to shoot her an incredulous look.

"What _case_? The killer is an actual zombie, who probably turned Perlmutter and that other kid into zombies, and we know this guy wasn't even Patient Zero-"

"There's no way this is the zombie apocalypse," she argues, her fingers clenching around the steering wheel. "There's not – they would be everywhere, it'd be mass chaos."

"Not right away," he points out. "It'll build slowly at first. And we already went over this, even if I am wrong – which I am nearly positive that I am _not_ – just come with me until it's proven. If it's nothing, turns out to be one big fluke, you can come right back to work and blame this all on me and my outlandish theory, you already know Gates will buy that without blinking."

Kate purses her lips and pulls up in front of the precinct. "Fine. Let me just grab my stuff from my desk and then we'll stop by my place and go."

"All I ask," he nods, exiting the car with her, sticking close to her side as they cross the street and enter the Twelfth.

"What the hell am I supposed to tell Gates?" she mumbles in the elevator, her palms sweating with nerves. She's essentially about to play hooky during an open investigation and it has her stomach in knots, but parting ways with Castle now would be worse, would have a full-fledged war waging on her insides.

"Don't tell her anything," Castle shrugs, checking his watch. "She usually takes a break around this time anyway, so we'll likely make it in and out without her even noticing."

The elevator opens onto the homicide floor and Castle jogs straight for Ryan and Esposito's desk while Beckett strides to hers, unlocks her drawer with fingers that tremble and hauls her bag over her shoulder, snags her extra piece from the bottom drawer.

"Yo, what's this about you running away with Castle?" Esposito questions under his breath, but when she glances up at him, he straightens, assesses her with a rare hint of concern. "What the hell happened? You look like you saw a ghost."

"Not a ghost, a zombie," Castle whispers over Espo's shoulder and Kate rolls her eyes, but her hand still shakes. "I'm telling you, Esposito, you guys need to come with us. Or at least meet us out there. I gave Ryan the directions to both my Hamptons place and the bunker so-"

"Bunker? What the hell?" Esposito hisses, but Castle is waving him off. "Beckett, you seriously buying this crap?"

"I - I don't know," she confesses, scraping her fingers through her hair. "Perlmutter is dead. The guy dressed as a zombie, Kyle, he - he came back to life-"

Ryan is joining their huddled trio, staring back at her with eyes that look as if they're about to bulge from their sockets. " _What_?"

"Perlmutter was about to cut him open and it was like he jerked away, went straight for him," Castle explains in a low murmur. "Kate emptied her clip into his back, his chest, and it didn't make a difference. Not until she shot him in the head."

She nods when both boys turn to her for confirmation and Ryan pivots on his heel, heading back for his desk with his phone already in his hand.

"I wouldn't be against you, Ryan, Lanie, and Jenny following us out of the city as soon as you can," she adds, swallowing against the disbelief in Esposito's eyes. "Better safe than sorry, I guess."

Castle musters a proud grin that falls flat at Esposito's side and then he's reaching for her hand again. "Feel free to raid the armory on your way out."

" _Castle_ ," she huffs, stumbling after him, and she thinks that's what convinces Esposito to begin taking this seriously.

"Hey, you gave Ryan the addresses?" he asks before they're out of earshot and Castle nods. "We'll wait in the Hamptons until tomorrow, then we're moving forward. Phone lines will likely be down by tonight, early morning depending on how all of this goes down, so call as soon as possible if you can."

And the fact that Esposito accepts the information with a solemn nod, shares a look with Ryan from a few feet away, has her heart pounding a little harder.

This can't be happening, can it?

"See you soon, stay safe and stay off the streets," Castle says under his breath, nodding to Ryan who is on his cellphone, talking too fast to whom she assumes is his wife.

She walks wordlessly with him back towards the elevator, her bag too heavy on her shoulder, and Castle squeezes her hand.

"Don't worry, Beckett," he tells her as the doors slide shut, his thumb stroking her knuckle just once, and she lifts her eyes to find his watching her. It's been so long since he's looked at her without resentment that she still doesn't understand. "We're going to be okay."

"Zombie apocalypse or not?" she rasps, clearing her throat with an ashamed quirk of her lips, but Castle is staring back at her with a flicker of surprise in his eyes before resolution claims his gaze, squares his jaw.

"No matter what," he says, twining their fingers seconds before the doors part. "I'm with you."

* * *

It doesn't take long for riots to break out into the streets, for the undead to blend with the living in the crowds, for assemblies to turn into massacres.

"We gotta go," Castle calls to her from her living room and Kate yanks her duffel bag from the bed, rushes back to the main room and follows his gaze out the window. "Shit, we really need to go. I didn't think it'd spread this fast."

Her stomach drops out at the sight below her windows, the view into the street, the chaos she'd spoken of earlier but had hardly expected to actually see.

"Castle, if this is - it's real, it's actually happening, but it's my job to-"

"With all due respect, screw the job right now, Kate," he mutters, leading her away from the window, scanning his eyes over the interior of her apartment as if this is the last time he'll be seeing it, and it opens a chasm of terror in her gut. She may never see her apartment again, may never see her old life again, and she's not – god, she's not ready. But who is? "You stay and you get ripped apart or trapped."

"What if it's controllable?" she reasons, but she's following him across the room with her bag slung over her shoulder. "What if they manage to quarantine the infected, stop the outbreak before it spreads?"

"Does it look controllable?" he questions with a tilt of his head towards the window and she doesn't have to look back to hear the screaming, the panic happening right outside, the prelude to a full-blown disaster. "You have everything you need?" he asks, already starting for her door, swinging it open and striding out into the hall while she locks up.

"Yeah, I hope," she mumbles, striding ahead to lead him down the stairs, out the side door of the building that exits into an alley, closer to where her Crown Vic is parked.

They almost make it without issue.

She has her first real encounter with the undead seconds before they can reach the car. A tall male in a torn business suit is blocking their way, shuffling towards them with an exaggerated limp, releasing snarling noises that intensify with every staggering step.

"NYPD!" she shouts out of instinct, raising her weapon, but the man keeps coming, growling at her, baring bloodstained teeth. "Stop!"

"Kate," Castle urges from her side, his hand on her hip. "You have to shoot it. It's not going to stop, it's not going to-"

"Stop!" she tries again, because it worked with that fake horde of walkers hours earlier, when it was all just an innocent nighttime hobby, when the threat was nothing to actually worry about. "This isn't a game!"

The walker is inches away from her, inhuman eyes staring back at her, decrepit fingers reaching out, doing exactly as Castle said – not stopping.

Until Castle is the one who makes him.

His arm come over her shoulder, her extra piece in his hand and aimed at the zombie's head, firing and sending the corpse crumpling at her feet.

" _Castle_ ," she breathes, but he has an arm around her waist, dragging her around the body of the dead, and ushering her into the passenger seat.

He takes her usual spot on the driver's side, revs the engine, and peels into the street.

"You… you killed someone," Beckett whispers, but she knows that thing wasn't a person, that what Castle had done wasn't murder.

"Something," he corrects quietly, sparing her a look as he maneuvers through the crowds and residual traffic with impressive skill, and Kate stretches her arm across the space between them, dusts her fingers at his cheek.

He startles a little but keeps his hands on the wheel, his eyes on the road, while she wipes away the blood spatter on his skin.

She believes him now.

* * *

"Are you okay?"

Kate blinks, fighting past the shock and exhaustion glazing over her eyes, and glances up to find Castle watching her. It's nearly four in the morning and they're free of New York City, of their homes and friends and lives, of the undead that she's sure have swarmed Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs by now.

"Yeah," she croaks, taking a sip of the water bottle he'd handed her an hour ago. "I'm just - I'm sorry, making you shoot when I should have."

"Don't be sorry," he murmurs, reaching for one of her bent knees that's propped against the packed duffel situated between them in the front seat, squeezing her patella with his warm palm. "I'd do it again."

She swallows, hopes that no matter the circumstances, it doesn't come to that.

"I'm not used to being… out of my element, I guess," she murmurs, still amazed at how _in_ his element that Castle seems to be in this terrifying epidemic.

They'd had the radio on for the first hour, listened to the reports of the death toll rising, both figuratively and literally, warnings of an infection spread by the sink of teeth into skin and the existence of a zombie apocalypse finally coming true. But the breaking news announcements had quickly died out and turned to static, the stations all going dark and silent, the cell service following. He'd exchanged a final text with Alexis, asking if she was safe in the Hamptons not long after they had hit the road but never receiving an actual answer, and Kate had spent a handful of seconds on the line with Esposito, received confirmation that he and Lanie were meeting with Ryan and Jenny to evacuate, but that had been hours ago and she hadn't heard anything since. And she knows she won't.

The world is steadily going dark.

"You're definitely not the only one, Kate," he promises, and it strikes her then, that it's the first time he's said her first name in so long, the first time he's spoken it with warmth, touched her with such tenderness. "There's no way to be ready for this and you're a cop. You're trained to talk people down, not shoot on sight."

"And you are?" she counters, swaying her knees into the drape of his palm, watching him navigate easily on the practically empty highway. They must have really beat the majority in evacuating and something about that makes her sick to her stomach.

"I read a lot of apocalyptic planning books before this and do you know how many episode of _The Walking Dead_ I've seen? Even went to zombie survival training camp a few summers ago with Alexis."

The corners of her mouth quirk and Kate covers his hand on her knee.

"Thank you."

He squeezes her hand once before letting go, returning his grasp to the wheel. "Partners."

"Yeah?"

His brow furrows, but she doesn't take back the uncertainty, because if this is their extinction event, how the world finally ends, she refuses to concede to damnation without knowing the truth and sharing her own.

"You doubt that?" he murmurs, the line of his jaw sharpening, his hand loosening atop her kneecap, so she laces her fingers through the empty spaces of his and squeezes.

"These last few weeks I have," she confesses, casting her gaze to the sky above, indigo with the sprinkle of stardust. Peaceful if not for the devastation she knew they had just left behind. "You… stopped. Stopped being my partner for a while."

His foot eases from the accelerator, shifts to the brake, and slows the car to a stop along the side of the road.

"What are you doing? We can't stop," she murmurs, sitting up a little straighter and glancing around, but they're alone, not a car or human in sight.

"No, we can't, but what I have to say will only take a moment and it can't wait any longer," Castle sighs, his head turning to face her in the darkness, the light of the moon bathing his cheek in the pale glow, and her heart lodges itself in her throat in a different form of fear. "I love you, Kate. And I - I wanted to stop, tried to make myself stop loving you."

She recoils, those words slicing through her, more unbearable than facing down the undead. Was it even worth it if he isn't fighting with her, _for_ her anymore?

"Beckett." Back to _Beckett_ , she curls her fingers at her chest, the throbbing heat of the scar between her breasts. "Kate-" Better, but still no good, no help to her cracking heart. He doesn't want her anymore, not like she wants him, and she doesn't know how to accept that. "It's okay, it's - it'll still be okay. I'm still here, no matter what, and I realize you don't feel the same, but that doesn't mean I-"

"What?" she rasps, grief and confusion scraping her throat raw as her heart slides back into her chest, snagging on the bones of her ribs.

"I just wanted you to know, but I don't want you to think we aren't still partners. I just needed some time to accept it, still need time, honestly, but I don't think that luxury exists anymore," he chuckles, hollow and raw and heartbroken _._ "I'm sorry if I hurt you these last few weeks, I wasn't trying to punish you, I just didn't know how to… I'll learn to love you solely as a friend, I promise-"

" _No_ ," she protests, shoving her bag to the backseat and inching closer to him, shaking her head even as her palms find his cheeks, cradle his face in unsteady hands. "Fuck, Castle, we have the worst timing."

His brow quirks and so do her lips, because he really doesn't know, doesn't have any idea.

"I waited too long," she rasps, clamping down on her bottom lip with her teeth to stop it from quivering. They had just survived an escape from a corpse-ridden New York City and she refuses to cry now. "I should have told sooner, so much sooner."

Castle catches her wrist in one of his hands, his fingers banding around the bone, sealing over the rabbiting of her pulse.

"Told me what, Kate?"

She swallows and presses in closer, drops her forehead to rest against his and brushes her nose to his cheek, feels the hitch in his chest and the stutter of his breath fan across her lips.

"That I love you back," she answers, swiping her thumbs along his skin. "That I have for a while now, but I thought – I always thought we'd have more time." She nearly chokes on the words, the weight of them, how quickly their time could come to an end now and how she waited until their final moments to finally tell him, to witness the bloom of wonder through his eyes, the tenderness that fills the striking blue of his gaze, the love she hasn't seen in far too long. "But don't accept that I don't feel the same because you're wrong, don't - I don't want you to just be my friend, don't stop loving me-"

Castle tilts forward to kiss her, soft and gentle, his lips tending to the surface of hers before his tongue caresses the seam of her mouth, slips inside and has her mind cleansed of the horrors they've experienced within the last twelve hours, replacing it with the beautiful sensation of his mouth on hers.

"We'll have more time," he promises, lips still brushing hers as he speaks, making it hard to concentrate, but her eyes flutter open, lashes twining with his. "Because no way am I dying now."

She smiles for the first time since the outbreak, for the first time in the last few weeks, and seals one last kiss to his mouth before drifting back into her seat.

"Good, didn't plan on letting you die anytime soon," she mumbles, watching him shift the car back into gear, his foot returning to the gas pedal.

"And it's not even for the sake of avoiding paperwork anymore," he muses, the corner of his mouth curling into a smirk. "You must _really_ love me, Beckett."

She rolls her eyes, but there are butterflies in her stomach, fluttering along her insides and tickling her exposed heart, spreading joy through her system. Because he still loves her, even at the end of the world.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Apologies for the delay in publishing this chapter. For a while, I was uncertain about continuing this story, but for those who wanted more, I truly hope you enjoy this.**

 **And for the record, to those who were concerned, I could never forget about Jim Beckett.**

* * *

They have to stop just a few miles before they reach the Hamptons, pulling into a darkened gas station right outside of the town, and Kate clicks the safety off of her gun before they exit the vehicle. She doesn't expect for there to be any of the undead out this far, not yet, the infection spilling through the city like wildfire, but it would take longer for it to reach rural areas. At least, that's what she hopes based on Castle's predications.

"Here," she murmurs when he has a hard time rigging the gas pump, curling her fingers around the thick hose and shaking it thoroughly before placing the nozzle to the car, pumping the handle in a short series of combinations until spurts of gas begin to stutter and rush from the dispenser.

"How did you do that?" he inquires from her side, his own gun out, but his eyes bright and trained on her. "Is this like a secret cop thing?"

"Mm, no," she chuckles, watching the meter in the car inch slowly from empty towards full. "It's an 'in case of emergency' thing. Speaking of, where exactly is this bunker of yours and when did it comes into existence?"

"Oh, I've had it since Alexis was a baby, but I remodeled it last summer while you were…" His sentence trails and she doesn't have to ask to know where it was headed. He clears his throat. "It looks great, super spacious, and there's enough food for us to ride it out at least a few months. Though, I know you won't want to be cooped up quite that long."

"No, but I do prefer cooped in with you over being out with the walking dead," she mutters, withdrawing the dispenser and settling it back into place, ready to get back on the road.

"I am better company," he muses, squeezing her hip, but his posture is straightening, defensive, as if he senses the same air of unease that she does.

It's too eerie in the stillness of 5 a.m., the grey hints of morning light beginning to breach the horizon, but the world around them still dark and deadly, the unknown lurking around every corner. It has the hairs along the back of her neck standing up, awareness prickling down her spine, and tension washes over her in one swift wave-

"A bunker, huh?"

Kate spins, drawing her gun into position, but the speaker has one as well, and it's aimed at Castle's head.

Rick's eyes are wide, the gunman only a few feet behind him, close enough to make good on the shot to his skull, and Beckett ignores the rioting pound of her heart and holds her fire.

"NYPD," she states calmly. "Lower your weapon."

"Lady," the man scoffs, unable to be identified in the darkness save for the height of his figure, the bulk of his upper body. "I watched the news until the broadcasts stopped. You really think I'm scared of a cop when there are _dead people_ walking around? Besides, I don't want to hurt you guys, but I couldn't help overhearing your conversation. A safe place with months of supplies sounds too good to pass up."

"We're at full capacity," Castle informs him, but the gunman only chuckles.

"Sorry to say I don't buy that, buddy. But if it makes you feel better, I was thinking we could make a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Beckett murmurs, waiting, just buying time. She can do this. This is the part she can still actually handle.

"I run this place," the man informs her, his head jerking towards the gas station that had appeared abandoned before they'd pulled in, dark and empty. "Well, _ran_. I have a feeling business is going to plummet after this. What do you say I let you both live, join you instead, and bring everything inside with us? Could add to your stash."

"If that's all you wanted, you wouldn't have approached us with a gun to my partner's head," Kate replies, the light of day slowly beginning to break and unveil the man's appearance, revealing his intentions.

There's no way all three of them are leaving here. Definitely not together.

He shrugs. "Safety first. Why don't you lower _your_ weapon and we can talk, Officer?"

"That's not how it works. I have a feeling you know that from experience," Beckett assumes wryly. This guy has ex-con written all over him. "Last chance, put the gun down."

The man's lips curl into a wicked grin. "Or what?"

But Castle is reacting before she can answer, thrusting his head backwards in a move she's seen before, and this time, she's quicker, more efficient than she was with Coonan, and she takes the shot the moment she has it.

The single blast of gunfire resounds through the air, their assailant staggers to his knees and collapses onto the dirty concrete. Kate breathes past the deafening rush of her heartbeat, her eyes on the spill of blood from the man's chest, but her grip on her piece doesn't loosen.

"Kate." Her eyes flicker up to Castle, standing in front of her now, his hand draping gently at her forearm, coaxing her weapon downwards and she adjusts the safety, returns the gun to its holster. "You okay?"

"You're not the one who should be asking that question," she breathes, hooking her arms around his neck and grazing her fingers to the back of his skull where a bullet could have found its home, where his head is probably pounding from its collision.

Castle hesitates, his chest stuttering beneath the seal of hers in surprise before he exhales, draws his arms up around her.

"I'm fine, totally fine," he promises, hugging her back with tight arms around her waist, but the shudder of his chest against hers tells a different story. "That was nothing compared to some of the situations we've been in before."

Kate purses her lips. He isn't wrong, but he isn't okay either.

"That bunker of yours is sounding better by the minute," she whispers, sighing against his cheek as he chuckles softly. "We should raid the gas station, then get out of here in case the gunshot draws attention."

Castle pauses, his hands clenching at her shoulders as he lifts his face to the sky.

"I don't think we have to worry about that," he murmurs, and Kate follows his gaze, catches sight of the helicopter speeding by, not close enough to see them on the ground, but heading towards the city.

It's mere seconds before the sounds of explosions penetrate the stillness, blooms of orange lighting up the distant sky, the rumble of the earth deafening even from where they stand over 200 miles away. She stares with wide eyes at the helicopters bombing the city they had just abandoned, the breach of sunrise overtaken by the rise of fire and smoke from demolished buildings.

"They must be dropping napalm," she realizes aloud. "In the streets, they're - shit, Castle, you were right. About everything."

When Kate glances back to him, he's slack jawed, his eyes alight with the bursts of color through the sky and growing horror, and she braces her palms at his chest, pushes him towards the car.

"We need to move, get to Alexis and Martha, hope the boys and Lanie made it out before – before this. They may target smaller town areas next," she gets out, snapping Rick into action.

She offers to drive, insisting he deserves a break, but he's already turning the key in the ignition and there's no time to argue.

* * *

"They're not here," he panics, nearly tripping his way down the stairs, his skin pale with fear. "What if they didn't make it, Kate? What if they-"

"Don't," she breathes, catching him by the biceps before he can barrel past her. "They could have just gone straight to the bunker the second they realized what was going on," Beckett reasons, standing in the foyer of his Hamptons home, the beauty of the magnificent mansion lost on her as she attempts to steady the terrified man in front of her. "Get what you need from here and we'll go. I'll raid your fridge and leave a note for the boys."

Castle nods dumbly, turning back towards the stairs and climbing quickly, but with exhaustion weighing heavily on his shoulder, the shock and horror of arriving only to find the house empty dragging him down by the spine.

Her intestines are in knots over the unexpected discovery – or lack thereof – and the inability to know the fate of their family from the Twelfth, her father. She really wants to know if her father was all right. He had said he would be at the cabin this week since he had time off, but there was no way to tell and he doesn't have cell service out there either so she couldn't have even-

Kate swallows down the panic before it can grow, devour and consume, and forces herself into the kitchen. She finds a reusable grocery bag in the pantry and searches through the space for nonperishables, snags the water bottles she locates in the fridge, and takes the haul out to the SUV in his driveway they were switching into.

Her father is smart, resourceful, and she trusts in his ability to survive. At least until they can retrieve him.

Rick is bounding down the stairs minutes later, two bags slung over his shoulders, and follows her lead out the door.

* * *

"Your dad."

He glances away from the empty road to watch Kate lift her head from the uncomfortable angle where it had been resting against the edge of the passenger seat, her eyes bleary from lack of sleep, but rippling with awareness.

He hadn't even thought… her own father. He'd only been concerned about his family, but she was family too and Jim Beckett was all she had.

"Where is he? Please - please tell me he's not in the city?"

Her head shakes as she sits up, but her throat bobs before she musters an answer for him. "The last time I talked to him a couple of days ago, he told me he was going to be spending the week at our cabin upstate. There's little to no cell service, so I couldn't… I just wish I could have called him."

Her lips purse and her eyes fall to her knees, lashes fluttering in hopes of holding back tears, because he knows how much she hates to cry, and Castle reaches over, snags one of her hands.

"You said upstate?" he prompts, squeezing her cold fingers. "Here, look at these directions, tell me if it's not too far out of the way. We can take a detour, go back if we have to-"

"We can't go back," she rasps, scraping the hand not ensnared in his through her tangled hair, letting him go when he digs in his pocket for his phone. The device is useless now, but the map app should still be open and show his most recently entered route, and he hands it to Kate with bated breath.

"We go back if we have to. We're making good time and I'd say we've been pretty lucky so far," he tries to reassure her, but he finds his words are unnecessary when she releases a sigh of startled relief, shifts to face him with her finger on the screen.

"Your bunker is right on the way. The cabin is just off this upcoming highway," Kate explains with her lips curling in tentative hope and he follows the trail of her fingertip along the digital webs of streets and highways decorating the map.

"Wow, you really were secluded," he murmurs as he squints to study the area her finger hovers above, completely unthinkingly, and his heart shudders with absolute dread, prepared to receive either a pained look or a murderous glare. But much to his surprise, Kate's eyes only soften.

"Yeah, definitely an upside now more than ever. If we ever come out this way for any reason in the future, we'll have a safe place to hole up," she nods, using his wrist to draw his knuckles to her mouth for a brush of her lips before she releases him, casts her gaze back towards the window. "I just hope he's there."

For a moment, he's speechless, stuck on the kiss she'd so effortlessly stained to his skin, but Castle quickly nods, readjusts his grip on the steering wheel and presses harder on the accelerator.

He hopes her father is there too. He doesn't want to see her wounded by the cruelties of the world once again, crushed by the all consuming hands of grief and loss. It's bad enough that the earth (or at least New York) has been overtaken by the living dead, fulfilling an apocalyptic theory that had always been fun to daydream about, but not something even he would have ever wanted.

She can't lose her father too. Not after having to endure the loss of her mother, the constant dead ends in her case, the… lack of her partner these past few weeks.

"Kate?" She glances back from the phone cradled in her palms, the app still opened and illuminating the skin of her cheek, dancing along her jaw. "I love you."

Despite all that had happened between them, the whirlwind of emotions he had become swept up in and the hurt he had harbored, he'd only wanted to protect her the moment the catalytic danger they were in was confirmed. He had only wanted be able to save her this time, whether she loved him or not.

And now that he knows she actually _does_ (the knowledge still lighting a pleasant flame within his heart), he's more adamant than ever to keep them both alive.

Or, he thinks rather morbidly, at least die together this time. Because he refuses to be without her again.

Kate smiles at him and he thinks it has to be the most beautiful thing left in this world.

"I love you too, Castle."

* * *

The familiar crunch of gravel beneath the tires of her cruiser soothes her heart and cracks it at the same time, fear running like a fault line through her chest as Castle stops the car just shy of the cabin that is barely visible through the myriad of trees.

Secluded. Seclusion is good. Seclusion meant less people – both the living and the dead kind.

Kate swallows hard and grips the door handle, but Castle stills her with a hand to her knee, fingers splayed over the jean-clad bone of her patella and squeezing gently.

"No matter what we find," he murmurs when she glances back to him in askance. "We're going to be okay. You'll be okay."

She'll have to be.

Kate covers his hand and squeezes his fingers back, savors the warmth his hands always seem to hold, and pushes her door open. She waits for Castle to follow before proceeding with her gun raised, her partner backing her as he has so many times before, their eyes scanning the forest, listening for any sound of human life.

"Wait here," she whispers once they reach the porch steps, but he merely scoffs at her, sticks close to her back while she climbs the short set of stairs to the wooden surface.

"Not a chance," he mutters, splitting from her only once they reach the door, both of them bracketing the frame.

Beckett inhales a deep breath, allows her lungs a second to expand, deflate, before she knocks on the door with her fist, tightens her grip on her gun while she awaits an answer.

Seconds that last heartbeats too long pass and then the distinct crack of a rifle being loaded breaks the silence. Castle and Beckett both jerk in the direction of the noise, only to witness her father coming around the side of the cabin, the rifle he's had since she was a teenager aimed and ready.

And lowering the second he rounds the outer wall to see the two of them.

"Katie," he exhales, relief drenching him from head to toe, and Kate hastily places her gun back in its holster, bounds down the stairs.

"Dad," she breathes out, rushing into her father's embrace and banding her arms around his neck like she used to as a child. "Thank god you're okay."

"Stole the words right from my mouth, honey," he chuckles, his heart pounding hard enough for her to feel the galloping muscle against his chest. "I didn't hear about what was happening until it was too late. Cell towers were down and I had no idea how to contact you, to know if you were - if-"

"I'm okay," she murmurs, pulling back with a grin that quivers across her lips, gripping her father's shoulder before turning back to the man watching from a respectful distance with soft eyes that remain. "Thanks to Castle."

Jim smiles, so easy and natural, knowing. "You saved my daughter, Rick?"

Rick spends a moment floundering, looking to her for confirmation, but she merely shrugs, drifts from her father's side to claim her partner's hand as he trots back down the stairs. "I - I just wanted to keep her safe," he finally gets out, but it's all the answer her dad seems to need.

"Castle's the one who convinced me to leave. I didn't believe it was happening at first, had no intention of going anywhere-"

"Have I mentioned how glad I am that you're the one watching Katie's back?" Jim inquires, the corner of his mouth twitching as he assesses Castle with warm eyes.

"It's a job I'm privileged to have," Castle murmurs in reply, the look he shoots her stealing her breath, almost making her forget that her father is standing only a few feet away, that they're in the middle of an apocalypse.

Richard Castle so openly in love with her could be her undoing if she isn't careful.

"Come on, I don't like being outside," Jim states, plunging her back to reality. "Did you two have a destination in mind, or were you thinking of holing up here?"

They follow her dad back up the three porch steps, into the cabin she hasn't seen since last summer, the space untouched and such a welcome sight after the last twelve hours. He has a duffel bag sitting on the couch, an assortment of two handguns and a machete from the toolshed outside laid out across the coffee table.

Maybe not so untouched after all.

"I have a bunker," Castle blurts, earning the hitch of Jim's brow, the flicker of his gaze to Kate, but she can only nod her confirmation. "Not too far from here," Rick adds, as if her father needs convincing. "It's stocked with food, water, supplies. Enough for maybe five to ten people to live on for a few months. But more than anything, it's safe."

"Well, that certainly beats a cabin in the woods," Jim chuckles, locking the front door behind them once they're all standing in the small foyer. "I don't have much to pack, so just let me grab a few things and I'll be ready whenever you two are."

Her dad disappears down the short hallway just off the kitchen, towards his bedroom, and Kate seizes the opportunity to lead Castle in the opposite direction, towards hers.

"This is where you were?" he murmurs, and she can't be positive if he means last summer or if he's simply referring to her childhood spent in this room during yearly summers away from the city, but she hums her reply nonetheless.

"Yeah, this has always been my room. But I spent most of my time on the dock out on the lake, or in the woods. Not so much this past summer though, my body was too weak to do much."

She's still wearing her turtleneck from the day before, the orange leather of her jacket, but Castle's eyes still ascend to where he knows her scar must lie, unseen by him, but always present.

"Beckett," he chokes out, reaching to snag her hand when she begins to strip the turtleneck from her frame, nothing but the black cotton of her bra with the subtle lace trim underneath. "Your dad-"

"Calm down, Castle," she huffs, tossing the sweater and her jacket onto the twin size bed a few feet away. "My shirt has blood all over it and I have a few spares here, but also-"

Kate claims the fingers she had just avoided, guides them up to the exposed skin of her chest, lays them to rest between her breasts, atop the nearly healed, raised flesh that she's hated for so long now.

The breath he releases shudders along her jaw, his other hand curving at her bared shoulder, thumb stroking the rounded edge of bone as his eyes skate along her side, studying the incision scar, climbing to catch another glimpse of the marred skin beneath his fingertips.

"I'm sorry," she whispers, earning the lift of his eyes, the caress of his gaze to her face even as his brow furrows in question. "I'm just - so sorry, sorry this was between us for so long-"

"Shh, no," he murmurs, shifting in closer until his body envelopes her, the breadth of his chest engulfing her when she curls in, lets herself need him. "No need for apologies, especially not now."

"Rick," she sighs, her breath staining his throat, pooling in the hollow of flesh created by the convergence of his collarbones, but he shakes his head against the obvious protest he must catch in her tone.

Castle presses his lips to her temple, grazes along her hairline until he's whispering words against her forehead.

"This is all that matters."

* * *

Kate dresses quickly when the creak of her father's bedroom door resounds through the cabin, tugging on a long-sleeved shirt and shrugging the leather jacket back on too, and he's glad. That jacket makes her look like a total badsass.

The discovery of Jim Beckett, the relief of finding him alive and willing to accompany them without hesitation had aided in distracting him from the sickening twist of anxiety through his guts that the lack of his mother and daughter in the Hamptons had elicited. The moment with Kate in her childhood bedroom, feeling the puckered flesh of her scar beneath his fingers, her heartbeat a reassuring rhythm rising to meet his palm, had soothed the stress consuming his mind, bathed it in the pleasant haze of his love for her. But nothing could stop him from snapping back to the fear that Alexis might be dead, his mother too, and how he had no way of knowing.

"Hey, we're just grabbing what we can from the kitchen and then we're going," Kate murmurs, her hand at his cheek. Comforting him, he realizes, and it confirms that he must be doing a terrible job of hiding everything that's raging inside him. "We're going to find them, Castle. You talked to Alexis before all hell broke loose, you warned her, and she's too smart not to listen. And like you said, we've been lucky so far."

Her eyes flick to her father and back, as if in proof, and he tries to absorb her confidence through the brush of her finger to his jaw.

"If you see anything you need, just grab it, okay? I know we didn't get to go by your place," she sighs, but Rick shakes his head, curls his fingers at her wrist before she can lower her hand.

"I have everything I need at the bunker, even luxuries like my laptop with all of my work synced onto it."

Something sparks to life in her eyes. "Oh good, I won't run out of good books to read even at the end of the world."

A choked laugh escapes his lips and Kate arches on the toes of her heeled boots, dusts a kiss to his mouth that is both tender and strong, instilling him with hope and resolution as she pulls away.

"Two minutes," she mumbles and then she's turning back towards the kitchen where her father is withdrawing canned goods from the pantry.

He intends to assist, carry the bags of canned goods to the car, but Castle casts his eyes over the interior of the cabin first, ensures that none of them are leaving behind anything they might need. But his eyes snag on something he hadn't seen when they'd walked in before he can deem himself satisfied.

He hadn't even thought about how he lacked a picture of her, a physical photo that he could carry around with him in case the world went completely dark and he could never access the pictures on his phone, his computer.

Rick steps towards the mantle of the fireplace, cool from lack of use when he touches his fingers to the black exterior, and studies the framed photo of her, the sun kissing her skin and tangling through her hair, illuminating a brilliant smile that he's seen quite a few times, that he saw less than an hour ago in the car. He isn't sure who captured the moment, what this younger (at least five years younger) Kate Beckett is smiling at, but if it's the only photo he's allowed to have of her, he doesn't mind that it's this one.

He glances over his shoulder to ensure both Becketts are otherwise occupied and gingerly lifts the frame from the mantle, soundlessly unlatches the back so he can slide the picture free from its enclosure of glass and painted wood paneling. The photo is small enough that all he has to do is withdraw his wallet, slip the photo of Kate inside without even having to worry about creasing the picture.

"Castle, you ready?" Kate calls and he shoves the wallet back inside his pocket, turns to acquire one of the bags from her arms, and follows her out of the cabin.

Jim lingers behind them, his gaze tinged with sorrow as it roams the room, bids his second home a farewell, but when his eyes return to Kate, to him, the hint of despair vanishes. Her father locks the front door, however pointless it may be, and shoves the keys into the side pocket of the duffel bag hanging from his shoulder.

"Rick," Jim Beckett calls under his breath while Kate is arranging their belongings in the trunk of her cruiser, attempting to fit everything so her dad won't be so cramped in the backseat, and Castle steps away from the vehicle. "Thank you. For looking after Katie, even before all of this, and for stopping on your way to pick me up."

"Mr. Beckett," he starts when Jim waves him off.

"Jim is fine, son."

"Jim," he corrects with a small quirk of his lips, her father's approval igniting a small swell of pride through his chest. "We're both just glad that you were here, that you're okay. And as for Kate-" Rick glances back to the woman closing the trunk with a triumphant gleam in her eyes that scan the area once more before flickering towards the two of them in curiosity. "I love her."

Jim pats him on the shoulder and passes Castle with the smile back on his lips. "I know, but does she?"

Kate notices her dad's grin, tilts her head at Castle in question, but he only copies her father and smiles back, walks with the older man to the car and slides into the driver's seat, waits for his partner to slip in beside him.

"She does."

* * *

Jim Beckett is dozing in the backseat, his head pillowed by his duffel back and his arms crossed over his chest, handgun holstered at his waist and easily accessible, but Castle is hoping they can make it to the bunker without needing to draw their weapons again. Jim had yet to see any of the dead, only what had made it to the news before stations had been shut down, and while it was unavoidable, Rick himself could use some time after last night before having to kill again. And he knew without a doubt that Kate could too.

They were both running on empty and he wouldn't be able to sleep, to think completely straight until he found his daughter, his mother, and had the reassurance that the woman next to him was safe as well.

"Does your bunker have coffee?" Kate asks, tugging the corner of his mouth upwards with gentle amusement.

"Already suffering without your usual morning fix?" he teases, but she doesn't hesitate.

"Yes."

Castle chuckles and lowers one of his hands from the steering wheel, digging in his pocket for the packet of minty gum he knows lies unopened next to his wallet, but in the process, he manages to spill the contents of his pocket onto the seat between them – gum, a paperclip, some change, and his thin wallet all clattering onto the leather.

"I got it, focus on the road," she murmurs, collecting his belongings, holding onto the gum when he mentions it to her, but pausing with his wallet in her grasp.

He panics as he notices her withdraw the photograph that had been peeking out from his wallet, shooting him a quizzical look at the discovery of the freed picture of her that he'd slipped from the frame before they'd left the cabin.

"Kate-"

"You stole this from my dad's?" she questions, holding the picture up, and Rick resists the urge to snatch it back. It wasn't his to begin with and it's only been a few hours, but he's already formed an attachment to that photo, wants to keep it safe and unmarred and close to his heart.

Kate arches an eyebrow at his lack of answer and he sighs, shrugs his shoulders.

"I realized that I didn't have an actual picture of you. I have some on my phone, my laptop, but no printed photos and I needed… I didn't think Jim would mind."

"He doesn't," Jim pipes up from the backseat and Kate huffs, rolls her eyes at her father and passes the photo back to him.

"Do you?" Castle asks, his voice quiet even though there's nothing stopping her father from listening in. "Mind if I keep it?"

The corner of her mouth twitches and her fingers flex on the steering wheel. "No, I don't mind. But you won't need a picture of me, Rick."

It's his turn to quirk his brow, earn the full spill of her smile across her lips. "I won't?"

"No," she murmurs, her eyes on the road, but he's able to catch the glimmer of gold through her gaze. "I'm not going anywhere and neither are you, not without me."


	3. Chapter 3

They finally switch drivers when Castle looks as if he's about to pass out against the steering wheel a few minutes after they abandon the cabin. Beckett speeds through the last thirty miles, following the map still glowing on the screen of Castle's phone, letting him drift in and out of sleep for the final stretch of their journey. But he's wide-awake once she's turning off the highway, down a series of desolate streets, one constructed of loose gravel and dirt that billows and clings to the edges of her Crown Vic.

"There," he murmurs, pointing for her to drive through a thin shroud of brush, and wow, this place is _way_ more secluded than the cabin. They're practically in the middle of the forest and she's weaving through trees at his instruction. "Okay, here should be good."

He glances behind them, the stretch of road they'd driven down out of sight, but she can sense his anxiety intensifying as she puts the car in park; there's nothing here, no safe haven that he'd spoken of, and no signs of life.

"Castle, are you sure this is the place?" she asks, but Rick is already unlocking the door, stepping out of the car, and Beckett huffs, withdraws her gun.

"Dad-"

"Stay in the car, I know," Jim sighs, withdrawing his own weapon from the seat beside him, propping the pistol in his lap. "But I'll be right here if anything goes wrong, Katie. And if you aren't back within ten minutes-"

"Got it, thank you," she breathes, rushing out of her cruiser before Rick can wander too far without backup.

"Castle," she hisses, sprinting deeper into the woods after him, her eyes trained on the broad wall of his back, the width of his shoulders as they slow to a stop. "Rick-"

He's stilled in a small clearing, scraping a hand through his hair, squeezing his eyes shut once Kate reaches his side.

"They're not here," he rasps, his jaw a sharp line in its effort not to tremble, slicing right through her heart.

"That doesn't mean they aren't coming," she presses, stepping around to stand in front of him, gripping his biceps until his sorrowful eyes slit open to see her. "It hasn't even been a full 24 hours since all of this started. They could still be here at any minute, they could still-"

The crackle of dried grass, dead leaves crunching beneath the soles of shoes, has her mouth snapping shut, her gun rising, Castle's position echoed at her back.

"Dad?"

Both of their weapons slowly descend as the soft voice carries through the wind, the accompanying flames of red hair drifting into sight as Alexis comes into view through the trees, Esposito and Ryan at her back, the three of them a haggard looking trio.

"Alexis," Castle gasps, racing forward to sweep his daughter into an embrace, but Alexis grunts and winces when his arms come around her.

"Ow, Dad, I'm glad to see you too, but-"

"Sorry, sorry," Castle chuckles, gingerly releasing his daughter, blinking furiously to hold back tears that were inevitable either way.

Beckett is just infinitely grateful that they're tears of joy.

"Kate," he murmurs, seeming to realize that she's standing back, away from them, but she doesn't want to intrude on their moment of reunion.

But it's Alexis who lifts the shimmering ice of her eyes to Beckett, pins her with a nearly identical look to the one they'd shared at the bank. A silent _thank you_.

She isn't sure how to tell his daughter that she has absolutely nothing to be thankful for, not where Beckett is concerned, but before she can even begin to conjure up the words, her eyes are squinting, studying the apparent injury marring Alexis's typically untouched skin.

"Alexis, are you okay?" Kate inquires once his daughter is no longer engulfed in his arms, the afternoon light shining through the trees to flicker across the bruise on her forehead, the ragged wear to her clothing, as if she was in an accident. When her gaze swings towards them, she notices the boys' attire matches. "Guys?"

"It's a long story," Esposito sighs, rubbing at the back of his neck, Ryan practically a mirror image of weariness. "We're just glad we actually made it here in one piece."

"When the city gets blown up and the dead take over, evacuating unscathed is kind of impossible," Ryan mutters, rolling his right shoulder with a wince. "We had a slight accident on the way over, had to do a lot of walking."

"An accident?" Castle echoes, panicked eyes flying to his daughter, but Alexis touches her father's arm, offers him a reassuring squeeze of her hand. "Wait, how – Alexis, I called you yesterday, before we spoke to the boys."

Alexis sighs and combs a hand through her snarled red hair. "I know, but Gram wouldn't come with me, her acting school, and I – I didn't want to leave myself. I'm sorry dad, but then – then I realized _why_ you wanted us to go. At that point, it was impossible to get out and I couldn't find Gram and I still don't know-"

Alexis chokes on her words and turns away even as Castle winds an arm around her shoulders, reels her into a gentle embrace.

"We found Little Castle outside the Twelfth while we were trying to get out," Esposito picks up where Alexis left off. "She thought you guys might still be there. So, we decided to just hit the road to your beach house right there."

"Lanie?" Beckett chimes in, inching closer to Castle and his daughter, but when Esposito swallows, directs his gaze to the forest floor, Rick shifts towards her, his side pressing against hers and keeping her upright.

"She was out of town, visiting her parents, I couldn't – I don't know," Esposito whispers, pushing a knuckle to one of his eye sockets. "I tried to contact her, left her messages. She's smart, hopefully…"

"She's smart," Kate echoes, but her heart is thick with the 'what if's, both the best and worst possible outcomes for her best friend.

"And Jenny?" Rick asks quietly, his gaze worrisome as it lands on Ryan.

"I called her the second you told us and I told her we had to go, we had to, but Jenny – she's so close to her family. She promised she'd meet us here after she met up with her family in Vermont," Ryan explains, his voice so strained, trying to be hopeful. "She promised."

"She'll be here, Ryan," Alexis rasps, lifting her head from Castle's chest, sharing a watery smile with the detective, and Kate purses her lips, hides the doubt in her eyes with the fall of her lashes.

This immediate family. That's all she had left, all any of them had left.

"I'm going to grab my dad, let him know everything's okay," Kate murmurs, but Castle snags her hand, stays her while he presses a kiss to the top of Alexis's head.

"I'll come with you, get our stuff and cover up the car," he insists, releasing his daughter. "Alexis, you remember how to get in?"

Alexis nods and blinks away the residual moisture in her eyes, plasters on a cracking smile for the boys and leads them towards the elusive entryway to Castle's bunker. Beckett watches his daughter, following some sort of path that only Rick and Alexis seem to be aware of, stopping in the middle of a distinct cluster of trees and clearing away dirt, leaves, and tree branches from a seemingly random incline in the ground. Like the entrance to a storm cellar.

Alexis descends to her haunches, crouching forward until her hands are curling around a hatch in the forest floor, shoving it open.

"The entry is a bit tight, but pretty cool, huh?" Castle mumbles from her side.

"Hard to find," Beckett nods, accepting the embrace of his fingers when they slide between hers, appreciating the newfound comfort in them.

"Exactly. We'll be safe here, I promise, Kate."

She glances up to him, watching her so solemnly, the promise in his words reflected in his eyes, and Kate raises her free hand to his cheek, touches two fingers to his jaw as she kisses him, slow but urgent, grateful. Castle releases a breath against her mouth, exhausted and shaken, but alive and… happy.

They've potentially lost two of their friends, he may have lost his mother (though, he seems to be doing his best not to acknowledge that possibility), and at some point, there will be grief. Debilitating sorrow that will rip them to pieces just as easily as the corpses she had seen on the streets of the city yesterday can rip into flesh. Their world is changed, altered in a horrific way, and she doesn't think any of them have truly accepted that, despite what they've all seen within these last 24 hours.

Regardless of it all, she has him. And she can make him happy. It's more than she had yesterday when the world and its humanity was still fully intact.

"I'll keep you safe," Castle adds, a whisper of his lips over hers, and Kate slips her hand free of his, uses the opportunity to wrap her arms around his neck, to graze her palm over the spot that must still throb with pain at the back of his skull, and hold on for just a moment.

His heart beats unsteady and hard against hers, but so long as it beats.

"We'll keep each other safe," she amends softly, brushing her lips to the bone of his cheek before stepping out of his embrace, extending her empty fingers for his to claim. "Partners, Rick. Always partners."


End file.
